Dedicated to Rlupinkin and argentxvoid
For their support in the book :)

𒊹︎𒊹︎𒊹︎

I walked down the hall of BHHS, seeing Erica close her locker, books tight to her chest. I walked up to her cautiously, making sure not to startle her.

But I did anyways.

"Hey Erica." I smiled, causing her to yelp and drop her books. "Oh! Sorry." I chuckled awkwardly as the two of us knelt down to pick up her books. When my hand grazed hers, I flinched back at the sight of my veins turning black, and a sharp pain going throughout my head.

"Are.. are you okay, Dean?" Erica asked as I looked at her, the smell of sickness fuming around her. She really did have something wrong with her.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine just... a headache." I said as I handed Erica her books. "Here."

"Thanks. So... what did you want?" She asked, fixing her shirt and piling her books together.

"Uh, I've noticed recently... that you've been looking a little different. And—And I don't mean that in a rude way but I just wanted to know if you were alright?" I asked, smiling warmly as she stared at me in shock.

"Oh—oh. Well um... you know. My epilepsy hasn't been the best recently but, my medication is working for now so I—"

"For now'? What does that mean?" I asked, walking with Erica to her class.

"Um... my medication hasn't exactly been working lately but this higher dose has so far... I haven't had any seizures so... I'm doing okay. Thanks for the concern, though." Erica smiled light-heartedly as I nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah no problem." I watched her walk away before heading to my own class.

𒊹︎𒊹︎𒊹︎

I waited outside of the highschool after hours. Stiles had been given detention by Mr. Harris, but he should have been out by now to "go" to Kate's funeral.

I groaned loudly, quickly running in to the school at to mr Harris' class, where Stiles was impatiently waiting.

"Mr. Edric. What can I do you for?" Mr. Harris deadpanned as I laughed nervously, pointing to Stiles.

"He needs to go. It an emergency." I lied as Mr. Harris frowned.

"Well detentions not over so—"

"Mr. Harris this is really important—"

"And it can wait 30 minutes—"

"HE NEEDS TO GO NOW." I snapped, huffing in anger as Stiles stammered, quickly getting out of his seat and walking towards me, laughing awkwardly.

Mr. Harris shot me a concerned glare as Stiles dragged me out of the classroom. He stopped after rounding the corner, grabbing my wrist and forcing me to unclench my fist, showing the dark blood and claws.

"Dude, you really gotta work on your anger." He whispered as I shook his grip off.

"I'll heal. Now let's go before Scott calls one of us." I ordered, the two of us starting to walk out.

"I thought your phone broke?" Stiles raised a brow as I nodded.

"It did. Derek gave me a new one." Stiles unlocked his Jeep, the two of us hopping in and driving off.

"He sure seems to like you." He said sarcastically as I chuckled.

"What can I say? I'm a likable person."

𒊹︎𒊹︎𒊹︎

"To control the shift, you need to focus on your anger. How angry can you get?" Derek asked as I shrugged.

"Pretty angry." I answered, looking over at the claw marks on the flooring, along with the dried blood. I couldn't even imagine the brutal fights they'd have when this house was still alive.

"Okay. What makes you the angriest?" Derek seemed to have winced at the word, definitely a sign he didn't like the way it sounded.

"Someone hurting Jeremy." I said, crossing my arms as Derek nodded in understanding.

"What does the anger feel like?" He asked, looking over at me.

"Like... Even if I killed the person that hurt my brother, it still wouldn't be enough to make his pain go away." Derek hummed as he listened, crossing his arms.

"You need to focus on that anger. Eternalize it and use it as a way to control the shift. It's almost the full moon, Dean." Derek smirked as I looked around in confusion.

"Where's Isaac?" I asked as the man shrugged.

"Couldn't come. Something about his father and a freezer." I nodded slowly before looking at my watch.

"Oh— shit. Jeremy is probably waiting for me to put him to bed." Derek nodded me off and I started running back home, listening to the leaves crunch underneath my feet.

As I went to open the front door, I stopped, suddenly remembering that I had locked the front door, and I had forgotten my keys with Derek.

That came out wrong, didn't it?

I knocked on the door loudly, hoping it would wake up Jeremy. After a few moments of impatient waiting, I gave up, running over to where my window was on the second floor.

"God I hope I have it unlocked." I whispered, jumping up to the second level with ease and gripping into the stone. I slid my window up and sighed with relief, rolling into my bedroom quietly.

Since Jeremy was already asleep, I assumed it would be best if I went to sleep, too.

I really needed it.